Serie A | Lecce 1-0 Verona: Dorgu defeats nine-man Hellas to end crisis

Patrick Dorgu thanked VAR for Lecce’s first goal after more than 400 minutes of football, as they scraped victory past nine-man Hellas Verona.

The Salentini were in crisis after four consecutive defeats where they conceded 11 goals and scored zero, but the 1-0 to leaders Napoli at the weekend at least showed some signs of improvement. Antonino Gallo returned from suspension, but still missing Medon Berisha, Luis Hasa, Kevin Bonifazi and Filip Marchwinski. Verona also had Ondrej Duda back from a ban, though Juan Manuel Cruz, Pawel Dawidowicz, Martin Frese and Yllan Okou missed out. Surprisingly, goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipò was benched.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Kialonda Gaspar thought he had given Lecce the lead on 15 minutes when his looping header on a Hamza Rafia free kick went across the goalkeeper, but it thumped the inside of the far post and bounced back out.

Patrick Dorgu did have the ball in the net on 21 minutes on a corner, but it was disallowed for his foul on Jackson Tchatchoua.

Lecce had another goal disallowed on 36 minutes, as this time Dorgu was offside when flicking the Rafia strike through.

Dorgu was a constant threat with his pace and when he surged forward from midfield and was muscled over just outside the box by Tchatchoua, the red card felt inevitable, reducing Verona to 10 men.

LECCE, ITALY - OCTOBER 29: The referee Maurizio Mariani of Verona shows the red card to Jackson Tchatchoua of Verona during the Serie A match between Lecce and Verona at Stadio Via del Mare on October 29, 2024 in Lecce, Italy. (Photo by Maurizio Lagana/Getty Images) — LECCE, ITALY – OCTOBER 29: The referee Maurizio Mariani of Verona shows the red card to Jackson Tchatchoua of Verona during the Serie A match between Lecce and Verona at Stadio Via del Mare on October 29, 2024 in Lecce, Italy. (Photo by Maurizio Lagana/Getty Images)

Nikola Krstovic’s free kick was ferocious, but over the bar, and Lecce were made to sweat for their goal because the offside flag was up again. However, this time Lassana Coulibaly did not touch the Lameck Banda cross, so Dorgu was onside for his cushioned header at the back post.

Gaspar had a huge opportunity when getting his head to a Banda free kick, but Daniel Mosquera performed a goal-line clearance.

Despite being down to 10 men, Verona still had a chance to equalise with Toma Suslov’s vicious curler stinging the goalkeeper’s gloves.

Hellas ended the match with just nine men, because Reda Belahyane completely lost his cool with a yellow card for dissent, immediately followed by another as he shouted at the referee and the home fans.

Nonetheless, Verona kept pushing to the final whistle as Lecce held on under pressure.